Digital
programming

History

This station originally signed-on November 28, 1974 as Altoona's
ABC affiliate WOPC-TV broadcasting on channel 38.
At the time, Altoona / State College and Johnstown
were separate markets. The station was unable to afford
a network feed and for most of its history engineers simply
switched to and from the signal of WTPA-TV (now WHTM-TV) in Harrisburg. It did not help
matters that Scranton's WNEP-TV had operated two outlying translators
(one presently) in State College the second-biggest city in the
area. Already struggling for viewership, WOPC was dealt a fatal
blow in 1982 when Johnstown and Altoona / State College were
collapsed into a single market. The station's signal was all but
un-viewable in the western portion of the enlarged market. It went
dark shortly afterward. For the next few years, WHTM was the
de-facto ABC affiliate for the eastern side of the market while WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh served the
western portion with WNEP continuing to serve the State College
area through its translators. In 1986, the area's soon-to-be Fox
affiliate WWCP-TV, faced a problem.

It had originally been slated to be a Pittsburgh station but its
owners petitioned the FCC to move the license to Johnstown. In
their petition, WWCP's owners cited lower programming costs in the
Johnstown / Altoona / State College market. They also cited
possible interference with WJW in Cleveland. The FCC granted the request on
condition that WWCP build its transmitter in a location that would
allow Pittsburgh to get a Grade B signal from the station. However,
this meant that channel 8 would be virtually un-viewable in the
eastern portion of the area. That station's owners solved this
problem by buying the dormant channel 38 license and moved it to
channel 23. As a result, the old WOPC returned to the air on
October 13 as WWPC-TV, a satellite of WWCP. At the
time, WHTM and WTAE both pre-empted moderate amounts of ABC
programming and it soon became obvious that Johnstown / Altoona /
State College needed its own affiliate. As a result, WWPC split
from WWCP and became an ABC affiliate on August 27, 1988 under new
calls, WATM-TV.

The station was later sold to Palm Television in order to comply
with FCC ownership regulations regarding network affiliates.
However, WATM is still managed by WWCP under a local marketing
agreement as Peak Media feared that if allowed to operate
separately both stations would be put in jeopardy of going dark.
On February 17, 2009 the original date for the analog television shutdown and digital
conversion[1],
WATM remained on its current pre-transition channel number 24.[2]
The station shut off its analog transmitter and began broadcasting
exclusively in digital. However, through the use of PSIP, digital
television receivers display their virtual channel as 23. The digital
conversion significantly improved WATM's coverage in the market.
Previously, it had been plagued for most of its history by its weak
708,000 watt analog signal. The
station's signal was marginal at best even in Altoona five miles
from the transmitter. It only provided Grade B coverage of
Johnstown and State College and most viewers in this vast market
could only watch it on cable. However, the station's digital
transmitter is licensed for a full 1 million watts comparable to 5
million watts for an analog UHF transmitter. This gave WATM a coverage
area comparable to the other major stations in the market.

News
operation

WATM began airing local newscasts in 1992 branded as ABC 23
News. It had only one broadcast airing nightly at 11. Going
against the established news broadcasts from WTAJ and WJAC-TV, WATM's news barely registered a
rating. Their newscast was based out of the station's State College
newsroom but its separate news department was shut down in December
2002 due to poor quality. After that, it merged back in with WWCP's
news department in Johnstown. On November 28, 2007, The Tribune Democrat reported that the
shared news department of WWCP and WATM was going to shut down.[3] Under
that operation, WWCP had produced an hour-long 10 P.M. newscast
starting in 1992. However according to a written statement, the two
stations had been operating at a loss for years and the move was
needed. The closure resulted in all reporters being released from
their contracts. WJAC had on-air positions open but no
personalities from those two stations were hired.

Effective January 14, 2008, WJAC assumed production
responsibility of the 10 o'clock broadcast (still known as FOX
8 News at 10) which was reduced to 35 minutes on weeknights
and 30 minutes on weekends. The WJAC-produced news uses the same
music package and some voice-overs seen during segment opens as the
former operation did. A new graphics package slightly different
from WJAC and new logos similar to the WWCP promo logo introduced
in 2007 were created specifically for the prime time broadcast.
Because WJAC has prior commitments with news and weather cut-ins
during Today, WATM still produces its
own Good Morning America news and
weather cut-ins that are seen Tuesday through Saturday mornings.
Former WWCP co-anchor Sherry Stalley, who was still under contract
when the news department shut down, hosts the updates. The cut-ins
use news video from the previous day's WJAC-produced WWCP broadcast
and the same graphics package. On Mondays, the cut-ins are filled
by WATM promos. WJAC's nightly 11 o'clock newscast is also
simulcasted on WATM. In addition to their main studios, WATM and
WWCP operate sales offices in State College (on West Beaver Avenue)
and Altoona (on East Walton Avenue).